The Chrismukkah Baby
by millstone1005
Summary: It is Chrismukkah 2007, and Ryan is worried about Julie giving birth to his little brother when everybody gets together in Newport for the holidays. For the Chrismukkah Dialogue Fic Challenge.


**Title:** The Chrismukkah Baby  
**Fandom:** _The O.C._  
**Spoilers:** entire series  
**Characters:** Ryan, Seth, Sandy; many others mentioned  
**Genre:** Gen  
**Rating:** K (General audience)  
**Word Count:** 1250  
**Disclaimer:** _The O.C._ and its characters are property of its copyright owners. No copyright infringement is intended. No profit is taken from this story.  
**Author's Note:** This was written for the Chrismukkah Dialogue Fic Challenge. The line of dialogue to be included: _"He's gonna be okay, right?"_ as submitted by pm153.

**Summary:** It is Chrismukkah 2007, and Ryan is worried about Julie giving birth to his little brother when everybody gets together in Newport for the holidays.

* * *

The Chrismukkah of 2007 was stressful for everyone involved, but especially for Julie. Ryan was hoping and praying for her – and his little brother – to be okay as he waited for a call back from the hospital, hopefully with the good news that Julie had delivered her baby, and mother and son were doing fine. But he couldn't help but worry.

Julie was rushed to the ER an hour ago. She started having problems with the baby as they were all working together to prepare Christmas dinner. She wasn't due for a couple of weeks yet, but she kept saying that things didn't feel right, so Dr. Roberts called the ambulance for her. Ryan's father Frank – Julie's baby-daddy – and Kaitlin went with her to the hospital. Kirsten wanted to go, of course, since Julie was her best friend, but Julie insisted that she stay behind. After all, she had her own baby to take care of – little Sophie – and Sandy backed her up on that.

After the ambulance left, everybody forgot about Christmas dinner and scattered to their various corners of the Roberts' mansion to handle the waiting in their own way. Ryan himself headed out to the Roberts' pool house and lay down on the bed and stared up at the ceiling, his usual position to calm down and do some thinking. The Roberts' pool house wasn't quite the same as the Cohens', but it was close enough to feel like home. He could even hear the roar of the ocean from here if it was quiet enough.

Ryan tried to relax as he settled back and traced with his eyes a crack in the otherwise perfect ceiling. (He'd have to remember to point that out to Dr. Roberts when he got the chance.) Ryan took a deep breath. He was trying to distract himself from worrying, but it wasn't working. That was his little brother who was in trouble, and there was nothing he could do but wait.

_What if something happened? What if the birth went terribly wrong? What if –_

Ryan was grateful when Seth barged into the pool house in his usual way, without knocking. He smiled to himself. He could always count on Seth to distract him from anything.

"Hey, dude, there you are. I've been looking all over for you. Should've known I'd find you here." Seth plopped himself down on one of the chairs.

Ryan sat up in the bed. "Is there any news?"

Seth shook his head. "Nah. Nothing. Sorry, man." Ryan frowned. Seth fidgeted uncomfortably. "But don't worry, I'm sure Julie and your baby bro are going to be okay. I know they will."

Ryan looked down and started fiddling with the blanket he was sitting on. He wished Seth sounded more convinced, and more convincing. But he knew all about the things that could go wrong with childbirth. He'd read everything there was to read, at the library, on the internet, when Theresa was pregnant.

Ryan glanced at Seth, then slid back down on the bed. "It's so weird."

"What's so weird?"

Ryan sighed and looked up at the ceiling. "I was just thinking about Theresa. She had Daniel right about now three years ago. I wish I'd been able to be there."

"Yeah." Seth adjusted his position on the chair. "You know, you never talk about that. Theresa. What happened."

Ryan shrugged. "Not much to say. I understand why she did it. I'm not mad. And everything worked out in the end anyway. I wish nothing but the best for her. For both of them." He just wished that Theresa would let him be in their lives. Maybe someday.

Ryan sat up. Time to change the subject. He looked at Seth and gave him a little smile. "It's so _weird_ because, here I am, 19 years old and about to have a little brother, when I was almost a dad myself three years ago. Weird."

Seth chuckled. "Hey, I got a baby sister when I was 19, after I thought Summer and I were preggo."

Ryan joined Seth in the quiet laughter. Life was strange, that's for sure.

After a moment, Seth said, "Oh, hey, I forgot to ask. You talked to your dad earlier, right? You were going to ask him what name they'd decided on for the baby?"

Ryan nodded, thoughtfully. "Oh. Yeah. Frank, junior." He gave a half smile. "Original, huh?"

Seth frowned with confusion. "But... I thought..."

"You thought what?"

"I thought... Trey... You know. It's a nickname. I thought... I thought he was Frank, the third?"

Ryan shook his head, amused. "No. Trey is Trey's real name. It isn't always a nickname, you know."

"Oh... Right... Okay." Seth lapsed into silence.

After a moment, Ryan laid back and looked back up at the ceiling. Right, Trey. He'd have to call him after the baby was born to let him know. Ryan sighed. Fathers and sons. Sons and fathers. He really hoped that his father would do better by this new baby than he did by his first two sons. He really hoped.

There was comfortable silence for a few minutes as Ryan and Seth were both lost in their own thoughts. But Ryan knew with Seth in the room, the silence wouldn't last long. And he was right. Pretty soon, Seth was babbling on about how college semester schedules were anti-Semitic because they kept classes going all through Hanukkah, but ended in time for Christmas. And about how they'd have to have another birthday party for his 20th because he was by himself in Providence last week on his real birthday. And about how right now Summer and Taylor were inside fixing up the baby's room. And on and on...

Ryan had to smile. Seth. Gotta love him. But his talent for babbling didn't last forever and eventually he subsided into silence. After an interminable time (at least it seemed that way to Ryan), the silence was finally broken by the arrival of Sandy, cordless phone in hand. Seth and Ryan were immediately alert.

"Oh, hey, guys, here you are." Sandy gestured at the phone. "We just got a call from Frank. Julie's had the baby. She had to have a C-section. That's what took so long."

Ryan got up off the bed, as Seth stood up also. Seth asked his dad, "How is she? How's the baby?"

"Julie's fine. The C-section went well. She'll have to recover in the hospital for a few days, but she's fine."

Ryan noticed that Sandy hadn't mentioned the baby yet, and exchanged a worried glance with Seth. "And the baby?"

Sandy looked at Ryan and hesitated. "According to Frank... I guess he had a little trouble breathing..." That didn't sound good. "So they rushed him into the pediatric ICU. They're still working on him."

Ryan looked hard at Sandy's eyes. "But... He's going to be okay, right? Sandy?"

Sandy sighed. "We don't know yet, Ryan. We just don't know."

Sandy started out of the pool house and back to the main house. Seth and Ryan followed. They talked as they walked. "But, listen, he's getting the best possible care. They'll do everything they can for him. Julie was almost full-term, so he's got a really good chance."

But Ryan was still worried. His shoulders slumped. "Yeah, okay."

Sandy put his arm around Ryan's shoulders. "Try not to worry. I'm sure everything's going to be fine. Just fine."

Yeah, Ryan really hoped so.

* * *

**Author's Note:** This could be considered as an additional chapter or as a sequel to my story _Better Next Year_, which consists of four scenes with Ryan, one for each Chrismukkah he spent with the Cohens during the series.

Happy Chrismukkah, everybody! And let's wish a Happy Holidays for the striking WGA writers, their families, and everyone affected by the strike. Here's to a speedy resolution!


End file.
